The 2014–15 Football League Cup (known as the

Capital One Capital One Financial Corporation is an American bank holding company founded on July 21, 1994, and specializing in credit cards, auto loans, banking, and savings accounts, headquartered in Tysons, Virginia, with operations primarily in the ...

Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 55th season of the

Football League Cup The English Football League Cup, often referred to as the League Cup and currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout competition in men's domestic football in England. Orga ...

. It is a knock-out competition for the top 92

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

clubs that played in

English football league system The English football league system, also known as the football pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues for men's association football clubs in England, with five teams from Wales, one from Guernsey, one from Jersey and one from the ...

. The holders were

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

who beat

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

3–1 in the previous season's final at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...

on 2 March 2014. City were eventually knocked out in the fourth round by

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Since th ...

. The first round kicked off on 11 August 2014 and consisted of a North/South split with only regional teams drawn against each other. The first round included newly promoted

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club is a professional association football, football club from Luton, Bedfordshire, England. The club currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. Nicknamed "The Hatters", L ...

and

Cambridge United Cambridge United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Cambridge, England. They currently compete in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed the U’s, the club h ...

from League Two.

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

teams relegated to the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

usually receive a bye to the second round, however, this season, Cardiff City entered the first round. The remaining Championship, League One and League Two clubs contested the first round, with non-European Premier League sides entering in the second and those involved in European competition entering in the third round. Chelsea won the trophy after a 2–0 win over

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

rivals A rivalry is the state of two people or Social group, groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each ...

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

First round

The draw for the first round took place on 17 June 2014 at 10:00 BST. Ties were played during the week commencing 11 August 2014. The 24 teams of League Two, the 24 teams of League One, and 22 teams from the Championship (70 teams altogether) entered this round. The two Championship teams exempted from this round were

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club is a professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was founded in 1902. Since 1935, Norwich have played their h ...

and

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

, the two highest-finishing relegated teams from the 2013–14 Premier League; Cardiff City were also relegated. However, they were not given a bye, since they finished last. The draw was as follows:

Northern section

Southern section

Numbers within brackets represent a team's league level in the 2014–15 season, level 1 being the

, level 2 the

, and so on.

Second round

The 35 winners from Round One were joined by 13 teams from the Premier League (not taking part in European competitions), and the remaining two teams from the Championship (i.e. Norwich and Fulham, the two highest finishing relegated Premier League teams from last season). The remaining 7 Premier League teams participating in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

or Europa League, received a bye into the third round. The draw for the second round took place on 13 August 2014. Ties were played during the week commencing 25 August 2014.

Third round

The seven Premier League teams participating in European club competition (

or Europa League) – holders

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

, Chelsea, Everton, Hull City,

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

and

– entered the tournament in this round. They were joined by the 25 winners from Round Two. The draw for the third round took place on 27 August 2014 live on

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

. Ties were played during the week commencing 22 September 2014.

Fourth round

The draw for the fourth round took place on 24 September 2014. Ties were played during the week commencing 27 October 2014.

Quarter-finals

The draw for the quarter-finals took place on 29 October 2014. Ties were played during the week commencing 15 December 2014.

Semi-finals

The draw for the semi-finals took place on 17 December 2014 after the televised game between

Bournemouth Bournemouth ( ) is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. At the 2021 census, the built-up area had a population of 196,455, making it the largest ...

and

First leg

First-leg matches were played during the week commencing 19 January 2015.

Second leg

Second-leg matches were played during the week commencing 26 January 2015.

Final

The League Cup Final was held on 1 March 2015 at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...

Broadcasting rights

The live television rights for the competition were held by the subscription channel

, who have held rights to the competition since 1996–97. BBC TV had highlights rights, under the title ''The League Cup Show''. These matches were televised live by Sky Sports:

Match ball

The official match ball for the 2014–15 competition was the

Mitre The mitre (Commonwealth English) or miter (American English; American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, see spelling differences; both pronounced ; ) is a type of headgear now known as the traditional, ceremonial headdress of ...

Delta V12S.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2014-15 Football League Cup EFL Cup seasons League Cup

Cup A cup is an open-top vessel (container) used to hold liquids for drinking, typically with a flattened hemispherical shape, and often with a capacity of about . Cups may be made of pottery (including porcelain), glass, metal, wood, stone, pol ...